Bruneian sets new national 200m freestyle record at world meet in Shanghai

It was second time lucky for Anderson Lim Chee Wei.

The national swimmer was confident that he would set a new national record at the 14th Fina World Championships in Shanghai, China, and he did so yesterday in the men's 200 metres freestyle, his second event at the tournament.

Despite finishing second last among the 60 swimmers in the heats, the 15-year-old Bruneian battled his nerves and clocked a time of 2:06.40 to break his previous record of 2:08.18 at the Shanghai Oriental Sports Centre.

Before leaving for the Shanghai meet, national swim coach Eric Landa said that he was not expecting any medals at the highly-competitive event but was hoping that his swimmers will be able to break their own national records at the July 16-31 competition.

The Dutch also said he wouldn't be surprised if his swimmers were to finish last or second last with the world's top swimmers participating in the competition.

Lim, who is a big fan of US superstar and 14-time Olympic champion Michael Phelps, went close in his first attempt in the 400m freestyle on Sunday but only managed a time of 4:34.95. The record still stands at 4:33.76.

Not missing a single training session, with nine sessions held in a week, the hard work has finally paid off for Lim.

The pressure now lies on the shoulders of Christians Nikles, another national swimmer at the competition.

Nikles will only see action tomorrow in the 100m freestyle. His other event, which is the 50m freestyle, will only be contested on Friday.

Just like Lim, the 13-year-old Nikles will be looking to break his records in both events. His best time in the 50m is 26.01 seconds while in the 100m it is 57.59 seconds both set at the Asean School Games (ASG) in Singapore early last month.

This is the first time that both swimmers are competing at the world championships and they are definitely under some amount of pressure.

Apart from swimming, four other aquatic disciplines are also being contested in Shanghai; diving, synchronised swimming, water polo and open water swimming. The competition will also serve as qualifiers for the 2012 London Olympics.

This means that there will be no Bruneian female swimmers in London next year considering that none were sent to the China meet due to the lack of quality.